Eternal life

The life of knowing God

In the New Testament ‘eternal life’ joins zōē (ζωή), life, and aiōnios (αἰώνιος), eternal. Aiōnios is related to the word for an age, so eternal life is not only endless time but the life of the age to come. Jesus himself said what that life is.

Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

John 17:3

John Wesley explains this knowing as knowing "By loving, holy faith", and adds that it "is both the way to, and the essence of, everlasting happiness" Wesley.

Eternal life does not begin only after death. Jesus said that whoever believes "has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). John writes, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11), and Paul calls it not wages earned but "the gift of God" (Romans 6:23). Yet it is also a hope still waited for (Titus 1:2). Now we see dimly, "then we shall see face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12); in the new heavens and new earth, God's servants "will see His face" (Revelation 22:4).

What the church confesses

The Apostles' Creed ends with "the life everlasting" Apostles' Creed, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism names our chief end as "to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever" Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1. The Heidelberg Catechism asks what comfort the article of the life everlasting gives, and answers:

That, inasmuch as I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess complete bliss, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, therein to praise God forever.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 58

How the traditions picture it

The traditions describe the fulfilment of this life in different words. Catholic theology, following Thomas Aquinas, speaks of our final happiness as the ‘beatific vision’, seeing God himself Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae. The Orthodox churches, taking up the promise that we may "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), speak of union with God, ‘deification’ (theosis). Protestants often speak of glorification and of enjoying God for ever.

Evangelicals differ over whether someone who has received eternal life can lose it. The Reformed confess the perseverance of the saints, reading Jesus' promise, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish" (John 10:28). Wesleyans and Arminians teach that since this life is in the Son, we must abide in him by faith, and that it can be lost by turning away from him. For more, see What is eternal life? and the lesson Resurrection, judgment and the new creation.